British National Track Championships 2022
Words by British Cycling (Press Release), Images by Chris Maher.
British National Track Championships 2022 Day 3
Sunday 6th March 2022
HAT-TRICKS FOR CARLIN AND GRAHAM TO END THE BRITISH NATIONAL TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS
Jack Carlin and Fin Graham completed emphatic clean sweeps to end the 2022 British National Track Championships in Newport, as 11 more national titles were awarded on the fourth and final day of competition.
Tokyo silver and bronze medallist Carlin began the day’s keirin competition in fine form, looking to add to his individual and team sprint titles from earlier in the weekend.
In a hotly-contested final alongside team-mates Joe Truman, Hamish Turnbull and Hayden Norris, plus kilo winner Matt Rotherham and Daniel Cooper, Carlin showed his strength to establish an advantage on the group in the final lap and held off reigning champion Truman to take the win. The third and final place on the podium was taken by Turnbull.
Such was Carlin’s dominance across the weekend that he finished without losing a single race or leg across each of the three competitions.
Afterwards, he said:
“As a team, we’re looking strong, we’ve got a couple of younger riders coming through, which is promising, and it’s looking good for the Nations Cup next month.
“At the end of the day, we all love racing and we’re here to win. We’re friends off the track and competitors on it and we had good fun this weekend – there wasn’t much pressure coming into it so it was nice to come away with three titles.”
In the afternoon session Fin Graham also made it a hat-trick of national titles with victory in the Men’s C3 1,000m Time Trial (ahead of Colin Wallace and Henry Urand), adding to his earlier successes in the C3 Pursuit and Mixed Scratch Race.
Lora Fachie MBE (piloted by Georgia Holt) followed up her tandem sprint success by winning her second title of the weekend in the Women’s B 1,000m Time Trial, with Sophie Unwin (piloted by Jenny Holl) second and Nia Holt (piloted by Amy Cole) third. Daphne Schrager also doubled up with a win in the Women’s C1-3 Time Trial, ahead of Katie Toft in second.
Team events
After a phenomenal weekend in the individual events, Team Wales added the fourth and fifth titles to their tally with thrilling victories in the Men’s Team Pursuit and Women’s Team Sprint.
Coming up against Team East Midlands (Jack Brough, Kyle Gordon, William Perrett and Tom Ward) in the team pursuit the advantage switched between the two finalists throughout, but with a raucous home crowd behind them the quartet of Josh Tarling, Joe Holt, Harvey McNaughton and William Roberts proved just too strong in the final stages, with a winning time of 4:00.541. It was Tarling’s second title of the weekend after victory in the Points Race last night.
In the battle for bronze Fensham Howes – MAS Design (Alex Beldon, Matthew Brennan, Jed Smithson and Ben Wiggins) caught a young VC Londres team (Ed Bowley, Luke Goodwill, Owen Prenelle and Conor Williams) in just over two minutes.
In the Women’s Team Sprint the Team Wales trio of Rhian Edmunds, Emma Finucane and Lowri Thomas qualified fastest with 48.755, ahead of Team Breeze in 49.077. After progressing through their semi-finals the two teams then met in the final, where Team Wales maintained a narrow lead throughout and took the national title.
Afterwards, Finucane said:
“It was a really good ride from us. We were really happy to get a PB in every ride. It’s just nice to get this jersey.”
Thomas added:“It’s absolutely insane – the crowd has been wicked all weekend. It’s really exciting to come here and win.”
Para-cycling events
Sam Ruddock took the win in the Men’s C1-2 1,000m Time Trial, ahead of Matthew Robertson and James Crossley. Blaine Hunt overcame Martin Hailstone to win the Men’s C4-5.
Wales Racing Academy’s Alex Pope (piloted by Stefan Lloyd) emphatically won the Men’s B 1,000m Time Trial by a margin of more than 15 seconds, with Brad Gauntlett (piloted by Tim May) second and Nadeem Mughal (piloted by Alex Cook) third.
Women’s events
Ellie Stone capped off a sensational weekend by adding the Women’s 500m Time Trial title to last night’s keirin crown. Her time of 34.529 saw her take pole position with only two riders to come, and despite her best efforts Lauren Bell stopped the clock on 34.584, sealing the title for Stone by the narrowest of margins. Last night’s keirin runner-up, Emma Finucane, was third.
After victory in the individual pursuit and third place in last night’s Scratch Race, Tokyo silver medallist Neah Evans ended the weekend on a high with a commanding performance in the Points Race, gaining two laps on the field on her way to 64 points.
Neah was a dominant force throughout, scoring in six of the eight sprints, including maximum points in three. Jenny Holl won four sprints and gained a lap of her own alongside Evans and Anna Morris to seal second with 42 points, while Morris took third with 26.
Men’s scratch race
The final race of the championships was won by Will Tidball of Team Inspired, breaking clear from a group of six in the final lap to claim the national champion’s jersey, with Oscar Nilsson-Julien second and Josh Giddings completing a Team Inspired 1-2-3.
British National Track Championships 2022 Day 2
Saturday 05th March 2022
RED DRAGONS STEAL THE SHOW ON DAY THREE OF THE BRITISH NATIONAL TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Welsh pair of Ella Barnwell and Josh Tarling delighted the Newport crowd with emphatic victories at the British National Track Championships, as 13 more national champions were crowned on the penultimate day of competition.
Reigning champion Barnwell retained her Women’s Scratch Race title in a close-fought battle, edging out Anna Morris and last night’s Women’s Individual Pursuit champion Neah Evans.
After also winning her qualifier earlier in the day Carmarthenshire’s Barnwell showed great poise to hold off her rivals in the closing stages and secure a fourth senior national title.
Afterwards she said:
“It feels like such an honour because you’ve got a Welsh crowd, so it’s like home winning the stripes here. It’s amazing really.
“My big aim is representing Wales at the Commonwealth Games, hopefully on the track, but it would be great to do road too – I’d like to go for the win for that.”
Despite only turning 18 last month Joshua Tarling rode fearlessly throughout the 120 lap Points Race, building up an early lead by scoring points in the first five sprints. Charlie Tanfield briefly took the lead after lapping the field, but was then lapped himself to quickly restore Tarling to pole position.
In total Tarling scored in eight of the 10 sprints and took a lap on the field on his way to a winning total of 53 points, and try as they might the pair of Oscar Nilsson Julien (39 points) and John Archibald (38 points) found themselves unable to close the deficit.
Tarling added:
“I knew it would be fast because there are quite a lot of people on really big gears and there are some big engines here. I was going to ride a little bit of a smaller gear and I just wanted to get the jump, so I thought I’d go early while I was fresh. Luckily I won two sprints and that gave me that lead, then I could sit on for a bit.
“When John went and I was on him, I knew he’s got such a big engine. I was parking it every time, but I just knew I had to stick with him.”
Para-cycling events
Fin Graham made it two national champion’s jerseys in two days with a commanding victory in the Men’s C3 Pursuit, enjoying a victory margin of more than 20 seconds over Ben Hetherington and Henry Urand. This was Hetherington’s first para-cycling race on the track since a serious injury sustained competing in a club 10 time-trial in 2019, and his delight was clear for all to see.
In the C1-2 Matthew Robertson proved too strong for Ryan Taylor and Sam Ruddock to take the title, while in the C4 Martin Hailstone got the better of Nicholas Fairfield. Will Bjergfelt was the winner in the C5, with Blaine Hunt second and David Murphy third.
In the Women’s C1-3 Pursuit stormed to victory in a time of 4:05.004, with Amelia Cass second and Katie Toft third. In the C5 classification Morgan Newberry took the gold ahead of Emma Tod.
In the Para-cycling B Pursuit races Chris McDonald (piloted by Chris Latham) took the men’s competition convincingly, with Brad Gauntlett (piloted by Tim May) and Nadeem Mughal (piloted by Alex Cook) completing the podium. In the women’s event Sophie Unwin (piloted by Jenny Holl) set an impressive time of 3:28.828 in a non-national championship race.
Men’s events
Matt Rotherham won an entertaining Men’s 1,000m Time Trial competition, with less than a second between the three podium places. Rotherham set a blistering time of 1:01.008 to sit in pole position ahead of Harvey McNaughton (1:01.919) with just Jonny Wale left to ride.
While Rotherham waited nervously, defending champion Wale fell just under three tenths of a second slower to take the silver.
Team Inspired claimed the top four spots in the Men’s Sprint competition, with Jack Carlin adding a national title to the Olympic bronze he secured in the same event last summer, after beating teammate Joe Truman in straight legs in the final. The imperious Carlin qualified fastest and didn’t lose a single sprint all day en route to victory. In the battle for bronze Hamish Turnbull defeated Hayden Norris.
Women’s events
Ellie Stone was a surprise winner of the Women’s Keirin, riding brilliantly in the final to surge ahead of Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell for a first senior national title.
Stone required the repechages to progress to the semi-final, where she finished third, behind Capewell and last night’s Women’s Sprint winner Rhian Edmunds, but caught the field off-guard in the final and victory never looked in doubt from then on.
In the Women’s Team Pursuit competition, the Brother UK-Orientation Marketing quartet of Ellen Bennett, Grace Lister, Holly Ramsey and Isabel Sharp caught their Liv CC – Halo Films opponents (Katie-Ann Calton, Ella Jamieson, Matilda McKibben and Awen Roberts) in 2:33.850
British National Track Championships 2022 Day 1
Friday 04th March 2022
BIGHAM BREAKS NATIONAL RECORD TO TAKE GOLD AT THE BRITISH NATIONAL TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS
Dan Bigham added a sixth national title to his growing collection with victory in the individual pursuit on day one of the British National Track Championships in Newport, after breaking the national record in qualifying earlier in the day.
Returning to the track after his British Hour Record success in October last year, he qualified fastest by more than three and a half seconds over the 4,000m, setting up a gold medal ride against friend and former team-mate Charlie Tanfield. Despite Tanfield shaving a second off his qualifying time, Bigham led throughout in the final to take a commanding victory.
Afterwards he said:
“We’re all good mates and we’ve lived together on and off for the past five years. You want them to do well and I’m glad that they do – seeing Charlie back up that well and knocking out 4:07 is really impressive.
“I’m quite happy with how it’s panned out. Being able to focus on it meant that everything came together really nicely.
“My next race is the national time trial championships in June, and I might sneak in Lincoln. Off the back of that, Commonwealth Games, the Hour Record and world time-trial champs.”
The bronze was taken by Kyle Gordon in 4:14.589, following victory over Michael Gill.
The first medal of the championships was awarded to Lora Fachie, piloted by Georgia Holt, as the pair began their new partnership in style with victory in the women’s tandem sprint in straight rounds. A gold medallist at the Rio and Tokyo Paralympic Games in the individual pursuit, this was a rare foray into the world of sprinting for Fachie, and the pair go again in the kilo on Sunday. Nia Holt and Amy Cole took the silver.
Afterwards Fachie said:
“I’m not known for my sprinting ability so yeah, it was good. It’s nice when you keep it a bit fresh and try new things.
“There’s always the buzz of winning, you know, that’s why we do it, and any race is the same. I think the day you don’t get a buzz is the day that it’s time to retire.”
Tokyo silver medallist Neah Evans qualified fastest in the women’s individual pursuit with a time of 3:29.083, setting up a gold medal final against Anna Morris, who qualified second just under a tenth of a second slower, in 3:29.175.
Evans however still had more in the tank, and shaved off another half of a second to take the national title with a time of 3:28.470, having led Morris throughout. In the battle for bronze, Kate Richardson edged out Sophie Lankford with a time of 3:35.566.
Double Tokyo silver medallist Fin Graham won an entertaining Paracycling Mixed Scratch Race, with a blistering final lap proving too much for Will Bjergfelt in second and Martin Hailstone in third. Graham will look to make it a double tomorrow in the Men’s C1-5 Individual Pursuit.
The Team Inspired quartet of Jack Carlin, Ali Fielding, Joe Truman and Hamish Turnbull took a commanding victory in the Men’s Team Sprint, first qualifying fastest in 43.738 and then catching their opponents SES Racing en route to victory in the semi-final with a time of 44.342.
Team East Midlands (James Bunting, Marcus Hiley, Harry Ledingham Horn and Hayden Norris) were their opponents in the final, but were unable to stop Team Inspired, who took the victory by just over a second. Glasgow Track RCA took bronze with victory over Enhanced.
The final national champion’s jersey of the night went to Rhian Edmunds of Wales Racing Academy, who battled to a thrilling victory over defending champion Sophie Capewell in a deciding leg.
Having defeated both Milly Tanner in the 1/8 final and Lowri Thomas in the semi-finals in straight legs, she then took a 1-0 lead over Capewell in the final. However, Team Sprint world championships bronze medallist Capewell battled back in the second to even things up and set up a decider in the final race of the day.
With a home crowd behind her Edmunds dug deep to take the victory, before a victory lap draped in the red dragon.
Emma Finucane took bronze with a straight legs victory over Lowri Thomas.
